Black Londoners ‘face more stop and searches’

A stop and search in London is three times more likely to be carried out on a black person than someone who is white
(PA)
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Police stop and searches are carried out at a rate three times greater for black Londoners than white people, official figures have revealed.

The Home Office statistics show that across England and Wales the rate at which black people are stopped and searched per head of population is 4.8 times higher than for white residents.

The figure is down on previous estimates after being updated to take into account the findings of the 2021 Census, which showed significant increases in the ethnic population nationwide.

The differing rate at which black and white people are stopped and searched also varies by police force, with Dorset showing the highest disparity rate of 11.5.

But although London ranks alongside Merseyside in being closest to matching the rate at which white and black people are searched it still means that a stop and search in the capital is three times more likely to be carried out on a black person than someone who is white.

The statistics do not take account of the generally younger age profile of the black population and the tendency of police to focus on targeting knife and other violent crime in inner city areas where the ethnic balance is often higher.

But they will nonetheless prompt renewed focus on concerns among some black Londoners about unfair targeting and similar worries about the impact that this can have on intelligence flows and support for policing in some communities in the capital.

The statistics also show that nationwide the disparity rate for stop and searches of Asian people is 1.6 when compared with the white population and 1.7 for those of mixed background.

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